As a survivor of both the October 2017 mass shooting at the Route 91 Music Festival in Las Vegas and the November 2018 mass shooting at the Borderline Bar & Grill in California, it would be no surprise if Brendan Kelly wanted to stay out of harm's way for a while. Instead, the 22-year-old is deploying to Afghanistan for his first tour of duty in the Marine Corps.

"This is what I can do," Kelly tells theNew York Times. "This is what my role is supposed to be, as an able bodied and willing young man."

Of course, those horrific massacres remain in his thoughts, especially when darkness falls at night. "There have been nightmares," he admits. "It's something I can't really control. I wake up and shake myself out of it and write it down and maybe even talk about it. Mostly replaying the terrible things that happened that night and potentially what could have happened."

Despite the terror he's seen, Kelly says his strong faith in God has never wavered.

"As a religious man, but also as a human being, I know we're all going to die someday, unfortunately," he says, "But it's something we all have to come to terms with, some of us sooner rather than later. God has big plans for me, and I know that. Even though I've been through all these events, I am just a guy that's trying to figure it out like everybody else is at the end of the day."